A USFS file photo from two winters ago shows spruce beetle kill on trees in an otherwise healthy stand of Grand Mesa forest. The Grand Valley Ranger District wants to selectively remove the affected trees.
The Grand Mesa's old growth spruce forest is at increasing risk from spruce beetle infestations and more needs to be done if a catastrophe is to be prevented, aides to U.S. Michael Bennet were told in Delta on May 31.
During a "listening session" stop in Delta, Bennet staff aides Sheri Cogley of Grand Junction and Grant Colvin from Washington, D.C. were told that the Grand Mesa's spruce cover is seriously threatened by the pest that has laid waste to almost half of the 600,000 acres of spruce cover in the Rio Grande National Forest.
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